...Phillipa didn't even knew of the real allegiances of Cyntia so... Wait, I remember the Rose of rememberance trick now... Damn it.
Y'up... Bitch with a capital B...
Also she wasn't her girlfriend, Cyntia i mean, she was her 'leashed' apprentice.. *wink wink* Like mage's familiar, but sexier. Also Nilfgaard spy though yes. But Nilfgaard wasn't directly responsible with what was happening in Witcher 2, it was guddamn Sorcereresses Lodge (spoiler!) who end up played like a fine tune by Nilfgaard via Letho. (And as a fun fact, that only happened because as Letho said '...I'm looking like a goddamn stupid brute, and I can't help about how I look.', heh)
So Cynthia was at the observe and wait the opportunity mode. I think you even converse with her about this at Act 3, at retrive the magicial spying device quest.
Also yes, Savber is correct. Capability to choices and how these impact to story is what defines a rpg, we call 'rpg's with that is impossible and simply playing trough a static story with heavy combat oriancy 'action rpgs'. (kinda like 'special' childrens xD) Such as diablo.
And though witcher 3 has flaws that I wouldn't label this beautiful game as 'Action RPG' it doesnt deserve to called that.
But perhaps as a theory, this 'dark fantasy' concept is Witcher games' strong point and the Achilles' heel at the same time. Games like witcher, that pass in worlds that aint 'pink tinted', games that doesn't afraid to emotionally hit to players are rare. And quite 'IN' these days... I mean anyone remember old rpg games that usualy (specialy with adnd basics) with somewhat 'goofy' mediavel theme? Like a god damn mediavel theme park... Humanity's leaps in story telling suprises me really... I gues writers and readers gained more insight trough constant empathy with fiction. It is kinda nice. (also shows that our future lies in cyberspace that hardware maintanbed by robots, so we could play rpgs in virtual reality envoirment constantly... DUNN DUNN DUNNNNN!)
But because witcher and its "...and every decision you made will bring greater devastation...' theme, it might be forgetting some small details like these. (spoiler) like ladies of the wood quest, the moment i saw those three ladies' mural, I said "shit, this quest will end badly no matter what i do..." Or no matter the witcher 2 ending what you'll get 'burn da witch! what we burn with witches? MORE WITCHEEEEAAAS!' result, because it is simply more screwed up situation... I'm not kinda digging that to be honest.